Bothersome Thoughts (Caden)

[Zephyr]

K'ian certainly was an oddity among the wastelanders. He was the only who didn't seem to mind the Selenitians. The "wastelander" way of dealing with things was not his way. It wasn't hidden knowledge that he didn't approve of many of the ways they dealt with things. So much so that he was enraged at what happened during Millieth's hatching. It took him back to the day of his own hatching, when so many innocent dragonets were slaughtered, along with their newly impressed riders. He and his dragon were lucky that Romeoth hadn't been born mutated, but for so many other riders, that hadn't happened. He realized, in some cases, the necessity of selective culling, but it should be done BEFORE the hatchling impresses, not after, and his fellow Bendon riders had killed some perfectly healthy dragonets that would be able to function normally, along with one who was perfectly normal aside from his color. Then there were the dragons that were killed in the name of Bendon when they came to take over this weyr.

None of it sat very well with K'ian.

Even though he was Weyrsecond, he was virtually powerless to stop any of it. Romeoth hadn't won Millieth's flight, and somehow, he thought it had been slightly rigged. Romeoth hadn't standed a chance against a bronze fifteen years his senior, no matter how suave he thought he was, it all came down to the most powerful bronze. Still, you won some flights and you lost some, and even though he didn't usually worry too much when he lost a flight, this one was different. He knew that the others suspected he wasn't completely with them anymore, and somehow, he knew that they wouldn't want him as a Weyrleader.

At the moment though, K'ian didn't want to worry about that. He had entered the dining hall long before dinner started. No one was about, which was all good and well for him, and Romeoth was off hunting. The bronze had been gone for a while, so K'ian knew he would be back soon. Still, he was enjoying a few moments where he didn't have to worry about anyone being in his head, human or dragon. Not that he didn't love his dragon, he did and Romeoth knew that...just that there were times when a man needed to be alone, and this was as good a time as any.

He was sitting at a table, boots up and hands behind his head, leaning back precariously in his chair. Sometimes he thought he could just hide, and pretend that none of the horrible things that were happening to the Selenitans were happening to them. There was nothing he could do to help, and it bothered him immensely. Romeoth knew how much it bothered him, and the dragon tried to help him the best way he knew how, but there was only so much a dragon could do...and there was only so much K'ian could do without stepping on the toes of the other benden riders and possibly sealing his fate. He didn't know if he could take H'nes in a fight, since he was younger and probably stronger, but he knew he couldn't take on the whole of the wastelanders. And that was what was really bothering him.

Idly, the rider hoped his dragon was having better luck dealing with his demons than K'ian was.

[Ruby]

Without really understanding why, Caden found herself with copious amounts of free time, something that was highly valuable to over-worked Weyrlings. Well, over-worked Weyrlings that weren't Caden, anyway. When she didn't have anything to do, she tended to find herself lost; being a Weyrling suited her, with the endless lessons and chores and workouts. But their class was so small now that they tended to finish early, and that had only gotten worse as Millieth's clutch approached graduation. Graduation... was that really next month? How had it come so quickly?

Despite the fact that she had the whole afternoon off, Caden found herself drifting in to the Main Hall, following patterns more suited to lessons that finished in an hour or two (dinner time) than lessons that finished in the middle of the afternoon. What else was she supposed to do, though? Mo'rya and Er'ani were still working with M'ta on firestone drills, M'ze and Leilani were tied up with Candidate lessons, and all of a sudden Caden realized she didn't have a lot of friends outside her Weyrling class. She supposed she could go see X'rx and let him cut her hair, but she'd managed to avoid him for a turn or so, and she figured she might as well keep that trend up. It looked fine, anyway.

Food - generic sorts of meats, breads, and vegetables, dinner wasn't actually ready yet - and she headed for the dining hall, still totally lost in thought. There was plenty to trouble the Goldrider these days, not the least of which was what would happen when Caden was no longer an off-limits Goldweyrling and became a full-fledged Goldrider instead. She didn't trust any of the bronzeriders (with the exception of Mo'rya), but she also hadn't had much to do with any of them; once she graduated, would that continue? Somehow she doubted it. They'd be trying to get her in bed within the month.

Honestly, though, Caden should have spent less time worrying about Bronzeriders and more time worrying about her feet. Upon reaching the dining hall, she'd spotted one of those self-same bronzeriders, and took it upon herself to glare at him as she passed by him to reach a table on the other side of the room... except she was so busy glaring at K'ian that she missed the chair someone hadn't pushed back in, caught a foot on it, and tripped with a rather comedic level of flailing. Food flew everywhere - including a large clump of mashed tubers that aimed itself at K'ian - and one of Selenitas' goldriders faceplanted into her dinner. Even her attempt to roll sideways and spring back to her feet failed, as she ended up running into a bunch more chairs. By the time she managed to find her knees and started gathering up her spilled food, Caden was just about as red as it was possible for a human to be. So much for having to worry about Bronzeriders trying to flirt.

[Zephyr]

The bronzer was currently busy with his own thoughts. In fact, he was far too busy with his thoughts to notice the gold weyrling walk in. Of course, when she glared at him, he wasn't even looking her way, too busy was he thinking about his "purpose". K'ian often had thoughts like this, knowing that he was already in too deep to ever get out alive. So, it wasn't a surprise that the tall man wasn't aware of Caden's presence until she damn near tripped over the chair. The sound of clattering furniture startled him into the present and a mushy glob of mashed tubers flew right at him. The man didn't have enough time to get out of the way, and his chest got covered in the warm stuff.

Always ready to leap into action at the least provocation, K'ian leaped to his feet, eyes searching for the girl, who had already run into another few chairs, causing the loud clattering again. He wiped off tubers with one hand where he approached the mess of food, girl and chair that was quickly getting to its feet and cleaning up the mess. He slowed as he approached, pretending not to notice how red the girl was.

Frankly, if it weren't for the gold knots the girl displayed, K'ian would have thought her a boy for sure. There was also something oddly familiar about her, but the man couldn't...quite put his finger on it. She reminded him of someone he used to know, looked very much like a rider he had once saw back at Benden. Perhaps she was related to him? Instead of putting that thought out there, the man settled on something less confrontational. " Are you okay?" He leaned over to help her clean up her mess, plopping food back onto her tray for her. " Good thing dinner hasn't started yet." He said with a little chuckle and a wink.

[Ruby]

Poor K'ian. Another girl might have stuttered and accepted his help, but Caden wasn't another girl. "Fine," she snapped, pulling the tray away and staring the Bronzerider down for a second before she dropped her eyes back to the food all over the floor. Hopefully she'd intimidated or at least shocked him into backing off - she did not need help, nor did she want help. She'd clean up her own mess, as she always had. It was expected on a Benden fighting wing; either don't make a mess, or clean it up before anyone noticed it. And anyway, the last person she wanted to owe because he was kind to her was the young Wasteland bronzerider. Black and white, good and bad - she didn't want to question her hatred of the Wastelanders. That made everything so much more difficult.

So, still beet red, she put the tray back down on the ground (next to her this time, instead of between her and K'ian) and continued shoveling mashed tubers onto it. Curse her love for all things mashed and gloppy. At least she hadn't gotten any pudding yet, that would be a tragic waste. Shaking some mystery green vegetable off her hands, she glanced up - K'ian hadn't gone yet, and he had asked her another question. Fine, he obviously hadn't gotten the point yet. "Dinner'd mean more people, and I'd be watching where I put my feet. Wouldn't have been distracted."

Ah, but distracted by what? Caden reddened even more (was that possible?) as she considered her last sentence. She'd meant distracted by him of course, but hopefully he took that for what it was - distracted by him being a Bronzerider and someone she'd decided to hate, not distracted because he was attractive, or because he was the Bronzerider closest to her age (Mo'rya excepted, but it wasn't likely that Epifayrmuth would catch Nitrath anyway) and her Gold had to be rising soon. Leilani's Katearath was looking more shiny by the day; Nitrath had to be next. It was a good thing Millieth had already risen, but having the two golds rise so close together worried Caden a little. What if they ended up going up together at some point? Distracted by this train of thought, she grumbled without thinking, "How come you helped, anyway? Wasn't your fault. I mean, you didn't trip me or anything." Classy, Caden.